Oskari Saari
Oskari Saari is participating in the protest camp in front of Tampere University’s main building, to show solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people and to try to pressure the university to sever their ties and networks of support with Israel. He is sharing his feelings on why he is participating and what compels him to act.
“Revolution and the art of world-building is a faith-based practice in and of itself.” This is a quote from Ismatu Gwendolyn, community health worker, essayist, and podcaster located in the United States, that touched me months ago. In her essay Revolution is a faith-based practice, she talked about how she is determined to leave a softer world for her future children, and believing and praying for something she cannot see. To her, this is a form of religious practice at its core. Personally, I cannot wait to feel comfortable and stable enough to adopt a child and be a father.
Many young people today, like myself, are terrified of having children due to world instability, financial insecurity, and the need for full control over our own lives. I feel the same way, and that is why at this moment I cannot imagine bringing another child into this world. That being said, being a father is one of the things I want most in my life, and to have the honour and duty to love and protect any child who has been abandoned would be a blessing. To love their entire being in such a way that they will be able to walk this world with so much love and confidence in themselves in whatever path they choose, and to support them in that path.
Activism is one way to help realize this dream. It allows me to affect the world around me in positive ways and to influence it with more love and compassion. As humans, we have the ability to try, at anything, and I am determined to try to build this world that I cannot yet see.
"We all yearn to feel seen and loved."
Community building is a core strategy for this, connecting with others around you I feel is one of the ways we as humans have been able to survive and thrive for so long. Our cultures have been becoming more and more individualistic for quite some time, and especially since Covid people have been feeling more isolated than ever. Intentionally building and joining accepting communities around us is one way to feel more connected and to heal from this loneliness.
Through the act of building and supporting a community, I can impact the world around me. We all yearn to feel seen and loved. Community does this in so many ways, through curiosity we learn about each other and what makes us who we are and understand how different people have become the way they are.
Through the willingness to support each other, we feel loved, cared for, and safe, which allows us to focus on the things we love most and how we want to positively impact this world. Through a shared purpose, we have what we want validated externally galvanizing what we know internally.
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